Up against Fox’s Game 2 of the 2010 World Series during primetime on the opening night of the November Sweep, ABC stood as the No. 1 non-sports Net on Thursday for the 6th week running this season with Adults 18-34, and finished No. 1 overall with key Women demos (W18-34/W18-49) for the 6th time in as many weeks.

Despite facing World Series competition, ABC was up week to week in Total Viewers (+10%) and Adults 18-49 (+7%). In fact ABC marked its most-watched Thursday in 5 weeks and matched its top Adult 18-49 number on the night since season-premiere Thursday (on 9/23/10).

“It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown” (8:00-9:00 p.m.)

In the 8 o’clock hour, ABC’s special annual rebroadcast of “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown” produced season-highs for the Net in the hour among viewers (7.0 million) and young adults (2.2/6). With the animated Halloween special, ABC took second place in the hour among Women 18-49 (2.9/8) and was the top-rated broadcaster with Kids 2-11 (3.3/11).

“It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown” attracted ABC’s biggest in-season audience to the hour since January and its top in-season Adult 18-49 number with non-sports programming since last November – since 1/21/10 and 11/19/09, respectively. Further, the PEANUTS holiday classic posted the Net’s highest Kids 2-11 rating in the time period with entertainment programming in nearly 5 years – since 11/24/05.

Building on its lead-in against the World Series (+53% in Viewers/+73% in Adults 18-49), ABC’s “Grey’s Anatomy” won Thursday’s 9 o’clock hour for the 6th consecutive week in Adults 18-49. In its time period, “Grey’s” (3.8/10) topped Fox’s 2010 World Series Game 2 by +12% (3.4/9), CBS’ “CSI” by +15% (3.3/9) and NBC’s comedies by +15% (3.3/9).

In the 10 o’clock hour, ABC’s “Private Practice” finished as the No. 2 series in to CBS’ “The Mentalist,” beating out NBC’s “The Apprentice” by 4.0 million viewers (7.8 million vs. 3.8 million) and by 93% in Adults 18-49 (2.7/8 vs. 1.4/4). Opposite the conclusion of the baseball game, “Private Practice” once again defeated “The Mentalist” in Adults 18-34 (2.2/7) to stand as the No. 1 scripted show in the hour for the 6th straight week. The ABC medical drama won its time period, beating out the World Series and “The Mentalist,” with Women 18-34 (3.7/11) and Women 18-49 (4.2/11).

A note about increasing DVR penetration and year-to-year rating comparisons: Year-to-year rating comparisons based on the Live + Same Day data stream are distorted by the level of DVR penetration in the Nielsen sample, which has jumped up to 38% currently, from 33% at the same point in 2009. More viewers are watching shows on their own timetables, which may not be reflected in the overnight next day numbers. The only truly valid year-to-year comparison would be one based on the Live + 7 Day metric, once those stats are released by Nielsen.

Source: The Nielsen Company (Fast Affiliate, Live + Same Day Ratings), 10/28/10.